{
 "id": "walt-whitman/thanks-in-old-age",
 "title": "Thanks in Old Age",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Walt Whitman",
 "poet_slug": "walt-whitman",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Leaves of Grass",
 "book_slug": "leaves-of-grass",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 332,
 "container": "Sands at Seventy",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1888,
  "venue": "November Boughs (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1888)",
  "note": "Printed in “Sands at Seventy,” the verse section of November Boughs, and gathered into Leaves of Grass as the First Annex in 1891–92, which is the arrangement the corpus text follows. First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/novemberboughs00whitrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/novemberboughs00whitgoog"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/walt-whitman_leaves-of-grass",
  "file": "sands-at-seventy.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1322",
   "https://archive.org/details/leavesgrass03whitgoog"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 112,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Thanks in old age⁠—thanks ere I go,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For health, the midday sun, the impalpable air⁠—for life, mere life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For precious ever-lingering memories, (of you my mother dear⁠—you, father⁠—you, brothers, sisters, friends,)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all my days⁠—not those of peace alone⁠—the days of war the same,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For gentle words, caresses, gifts from foreign lands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For shelter, wine and meat⁠—for sweet appreciation,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(You distant, dim unknown⁠—or young or old⁠—countless, unspecified, readers belov’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We never met, and ne’er shall meet⁠—and yet our souls embrace, long, close and long;)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For beings, groups, love, deeds, words, books⁠—for colors, forms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all the brave strong men⁠—devoted, hardy men⁠—who’ve forward sprung in freedom’s help, all years, all lands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For braver, stronger, more devoted men⁠—(a special laurel ere I go, to life’s war’s chosen ones,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cannoneers of song and thought⁠—the great artillerists⁠—the foremost leaders, captains of the soul:)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As soldier from an ended war return’d⁠—As traveler out of myriads, to the long procession retrospective,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thanks⁠—joyful thanks!⁠—a soldier’s, traveler’s thanks.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}